Newspaper Examines Workings Of British Sharia Courts

Today's London Daily Mail carries a long article on the workings of Britain's Islamic Sharia Council. This is the first time that a newspaper has been granted access to observe the full sharia legal process in Britain. The article says in part:

Sharia has been operating here, in parallel to the British legal system, since 1982. Work includes issuing fatwas - religious rulings on matters ranging from why Islam considers homosexuality a sin to why two women are equivalent to one male witness in an Islamic court. The Islamic Sharia Council also rules on individual cases, primarily in matters of Muslim personal or civil law: divorce, marriage, inheritance and settlement of dowry payments are the most common. However, in the course of my investigation, I discovered how sharia is being used informally within the Muslim community to tackle crime such as gang fights or stabbings, bypassing police and the British court system.